Saturday Skill: Making Cultured Buttermilk

I can still memory-taste 

the fresh buttermilk pancakes and hot buttermilk biscuits - both made with lard - that were cooked on the top, or in the oven, of that ancient iron stove. 

~Vernon L. Smith

Buttermilk has always seemed like a really old-fashioned ingredient to me and anytime a recipe called for it, I did the substitute thing of putting vinegar or lemon juice in milk and letting it sour.  I didn't see any reason to buy a little buttermilk from the grocery for just a certain recipe when I knew I wouldn't use the rest of it.  In fact, I grew up thinking I didn't like buttermilk at all - thanks to a little switch-a-roo my grandfather played on me.  I was thirsty and asked for a glass of milk.  He asked me if I wanted "Pappaw's Milk" and of course I said yes.  The resulting big drink that followed was an enormous surprise to say the least.  

Did you know that there are different kinds of buttermilk? Originally, buttermilk was the liquid left behind after churning butter from cream.  This is called traditional buttermilk or old-fashioned buttermilk and is good to use as the liquid in pancakes or waffles. It is a thin liquid flecked with tiny butter pieces.

And then there is the tart, delicious creation of cultured buttermilk which is nothing like the traditional one.  This one is thick and tart in a good kind of way.  If you like yogurt or kefir, you will probably like cultured buttermilk too.  In my hobby farm quest to make more things myself, I have already been making other cultured dairy products (thanks to the great milk I get from Pasture's Delights).  Cultured buttermilk was next on the list. 

What a wonderful thing to know how to make!  No more using the substitute version, this is the real deal.  It is unbelievably easy to do too. You need a culture to get started:  this can be from buttermilk you buy at the grocery as long as the label says:

Active, Cultured Buttermilk 

or purchase cultures (Cultures For Health  or New England Cheesemaking Supply Company are two good resources).  

How to Make Cultured Buttermilk

Ingredients: 

1 quart milk (can be whole, 2% or skim)

1/2 cup cultured buttermilk OR 1 packet of purchased culture

Instructions: 

• Heat milk slightly to 72 degrees Farenheit
• Whisk in whichever buttermilk culture you are using
• Transfer liquid to a 1 quart canning jar 
• Cover with cheesecloth or other breathable cloth (I use a dishcloth)
• Let sit to culture for 24 hours, remove cloth and switch to regular lid.  Refrigerate and use within 7 days.
• Save some of this batch to get your next batch going! 

Making real, cultured buttermilk is one of those skills that takes very little active working time and gives you very useful results.  There are many recipes that use buttermilk and I know your recipe repertoire will expand when you have buttermilk readily available in your refrigerator - I know it has happened like that for me. 

You can use cultured buttermilk is so many ways:  how about real buttermilk salad dressing (not the one from that hidden place where children always eat their vegetables), pancakes and waffles, buttermilk fried chicken, baked goods of all kinds and of course, as a refreshing drink that is a good source of vitamins, calcium and probiotics.  If you start right now, you can have this staple in your kitchen in just 24 hours.  I hope you try it :) 

I'm so glad you came by to visit today.  Tomorrow, I'll share a couple of my favorite recipes that use cultured buttermilk.  I hope to see you then! 

Peace be with you, 

Star Schipp 

This post may contain affiliate links which means if you make a purchase using one of those links, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you.  It is a great way to support your favorite hobby farm blogger.  Thank you!   

Farmgirl Friday: Time to Conquer My Fear of Making Soap!

Anyone's life truly lived consists of work, sunshine, exercise, soap, plenty of fresh air, and a happy contented spirit. 

~Lillie Langtry

Hello!  Welcome, I'm so glad you stopped by today.  I have a confession to make:  I am afraid to make soap.  

Sounds ridiculous doesn't it?  I drink raw milk; I've killed a chicken; I empty mouse traps;  I've even once punched a bull in the nose for knocking me down - in short, I've done many things that this city girl turned hobby farmer never thought I would do but one thing eludes me...the courage to make soap. I'm talking about real soap - not that melt and pour stuff. 

My sister makes soap and some pretty good soap at that.  I could go ahead and get soap from her since I want to avoid some of the ingredients in commercial soaps but now it has become a personal hurdle that I need to overcome.  Go ahead and look at the label on the bars of soap you have in your cabinet...do you know what all those things are?  

I'm looking at a label right now...petrolatum, polyquaternium-6, pentasodium pentetate, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, pentaerythrityl tetra-di-t-butyl....absolutely frightening when you consider that you are putting these chemicals all over your body day after day. 

I've been on a quest to get our foods in as natural state as possible.  I've done the same with the household cleaners.  The time has come to make soap.  

I've done an inventory of what I am most afraid of and here is the list and the counter statement I am using to overcome my fear: 

• Making soap is hard ~ Is it really any harder than pressure canning foods?  I used to be afraid of that too! 
• Making soap costs a lot ~ Getting the chicken coop up and running cost more than I thought it would, but the fresh eggs are absolutely worth it...and honestly, once I have the equipment to make soap, I can use it over and over. 
• Homemade soap is hard on your skin ~ From what I've been reading, old-time soap was harsh because the ingredients were inconsistent from batch to batch.  I have a better source of ingredients now. 
• Working with lye is dangerous ~ okay - this is probably the real reason I haven't made soap.  Working with lye IS dangerous but, with the right precautions, it can be managed safely. 
• There are a lot of soap recipes on the internet.  I can't figure out which one is best. ~ yep, there are many recipes out there just like there are for baking bread, making vegetable soup or even meatloaf...just pick a basic one and do it! 

Do you have any fears like mine?  Do you want to learn to make soap with me?  I'm making the commitment to do it and I hope you will too.  

Here is the list of equipment I think I need to get started.  I'll spend the week gathering it all together and will make the leap to make my first soap and, yes,  I'll probably call my sister for help ;)

Soap-making Equipment

• Digital Scale (+I have a postal scale)
• one or two food thermometers (+I have a digital one and one for candy)
• Stick blender (+I have one)
• gloves (-I need these)
• goggles (-I need these)
• stainless steel soup pot (+I have one)
• stainless steel 2 quart saucepan (+I have one)
• large roasting pan - 2 quart pan needs to fit in it with room to be surrounded by ice (+I have one)
• large glass bowl or 2L pitcher (+I have one)
• glass, quart size bowls or cups for weighing lye and fats (+I have some)
• two long handled slotted spoons-steel or stainless steel (-I need these - all my stirring spoons are wooden)
• molds - can be milk cartons (+I'm sure I can find something around here for this)
• pH strips (-I need these)

I am really looking forward to adding Soap-maker to my list of hobby farm skills and happy that I can share the journey with you. Plus I want to earn that Intermediate level Going Green merit badge.  I'll keep you posted on my progress.  

Tomorrow is Skills Saturday and I will teach you how to make buttermilk.  I hope to see you then!  

Peace be with you, 

Star Schipp 

This post may contain affiliate links which means if you make a purchase using one of those links, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you.  It is a great way to support your favorite hobby farm blogger.  Thank you!   

Want to know the secret to having fresh, homemade bread everyday? Check out this Saturday Skills post....

How can a nation be great if their bread tastes like kleenex? ~Julia Childs

Today's Saturday Skill is how to have fresh baked bread whenever you like - even every day if you want and it does not require hours a day in the kitchen.  In fact, it can take about five minutes of active work and the results are wonderful.  There is nothing more comforting than freshly baked bread - the aroma, the crust, the taste and the beautiful way a pat of butter melts just so into lovely little golden rivers filling up the tiny holes in the slice.   It is a memory like no other - and one you will not get from store-bought slices in a plastic bag.  

Over the past couple of Saturdays, we have talked about baking bread with baking powder, yeast and sourdough and I hope you have tried your hand at a loaf of two.  This week, I'm outlining how I always have bread dough in the refrigerator ready to bake.  I use the method described in the book The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day  by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. The book has many recipes but the peasant and the pizza dough are the ones I use most often. 

So how can you have fresh bread everyday?  You mix up the dough and you can store it for up to 2 weeks in your refrigerator.  When you are ready to bake, slice of a portion of the dough, shape it, let it rise and bake.  Ta-da!  Fresh bread and you didn't even get flour on your apron...well, except for that day when you mixed up the dough.  

If you get in the habit of making a batch or two of the dough on the weekends, you can have fresh bread with every weekday dinner if you like.  Even if dinner is a rotisserie chicken from the take-out stand, a loaf of warm bread makes it seem like dinner is the gift that it is - to share a meal with those you love in a nurturing, life-giving way.   

Rather than posting the recipes here, I am posting some links on making bread the 5-minute-a-day-way because I want you to get out there a discover how great this method is. 

5 Minute Artisan Bread 

Olive Oil Pizza Dough

Grab your apron, gather together your yeast, salt, sugar, water and flour and mix up a batch of dough to make a loaf of bread today AND next week!  

I hope you have enjoyed the Saturday Skills series on bread baking and I'm so happy you joined today.  Tomorrow is Sunday Cooking and I'll post some dessert BakeOver recipes.  I hope to see you then :) 

Peace be with you, 

Star Schipp

This post may contain affiliate links which means if you make a purchase using one of those links, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you.  It is a great way to support your favorite hobby farm blogger.  Thank you!   

Herbal Tea: A Tutorial

Drinking a daily cup of tea will surely starve the apothecary. ~Chinese Proverb

A cup of tea is such a lovely break in the day.  Whether sipped with friends and conversation or alone in a quiet corner with a good book, it is always a welcome moment in time.  Black tea is the most common form of tea consumed and it has been for centuries.   Herbal teas have also been enjoyed for centuries and with good reason.

 Depending upon the herbs used, the tea can be calming or stimulating, even healing!  At the very least, it is a gift to your senses from the warmth of the cup in your hands to the sight of the beautiful colors,  to the wafting of the enticing and welcoming fragrances and then to the delicious moment of the taste of the first sip.  It is a true gift from the plants of our world.  

Herbal teas can be made by the teapot or the teacup.  I hope you have set aside a really beautiful tea set to treat yourself.  If you haven't yet, put it on your next gift list. I am the only one in my home right now who enjoys herbal teas and I have a small, clear glass teapot that I love because the sun shines just right through the glass and illuminates the tea inside. 

Making tea is simple but requires patience.  Use fresh, clean water and bring it to a rolling boil. Pour the hot water over the herbs and let it sit!  Herb teas need to steep for about 5-7 minutes for flavors to fully develop.  Many times, people stop steeping the tea way too soon.   

The tea enjoyment is even more enhanced when you have created your own tea blends to enjoy. The Homegrown Collective January Greenbox included some tea bags to fill that you can seal closed with an iron.  You can buy them here. Or, if you have a mesh tea ball use that!  It really is fun to make your own tea bags - the handmade versions are just so...homey and comforting.  Handmade teabags can be reusable drawstring muslin bags but I like to make mine with coffee filters and I can put them in the compost bin when they have given up their lovely gifts.    

All you need are paper coffee filters, sewing thread and some decorative tape for the label.  Here is how: 

Homemade Tea Bag

• Cut away the ruffled part of two coffee filters to have two circular pieces. 
• Hand sew around the circle leaving an opening to place the tea inside.  (leave the opening bigger than you think you might need - you will be placing about a tablespoon of herbs inside) 
• Hand sew the opening closed leaving a long tail of thread to attach the decorative tape as a label.  

There are so many herbal blends to use for tea.  Here are three of my favorites:  

Spiced Vanilla Tea

makes three teabags

1 Tablespoon Black Tea

1 Tablespoon crushed Cinnamon Stick

1 Tablespoon crushed Cloves

1 split Vanilla Bean cut into small pieces

Citrus Ginger

makes three teabags

1 Tablespoon minced Ginger

2 Tablespoons Mint Leaves

Zest from two Lemons

Lemon Balm Lift

makes three teabags

1 Tablespoon Lemon Balm

1 Tablespoon Raspberry Leaf

1 Tablespoon minced Ginger

There are multitudes of combinations you can make with herbs, spices, fruits, black tea or green tea.  Get creative and make some blends of your own.  I would love to hear what you make!  Leave a comment and share... :) and, thanks for visiting today.  

Tomorrow, I'll share a tutorial on making your own vapor rub and also a soothing oil for sore muscles.  I hope to see you then!  

Peace be with you, 

Star Schipp 

This post may contain affiliate links which means if you make a purchase using one of those links, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you.  It is a great way to support your favorite hobby farm blogger.  Thank you!   

Raw Honey versus Processed Honey Plus a Recipe for Homemade Cough Syrup

I believe the best labs can create synthetic liquids that look and taste like real honey and even have the same glucose-fructose molecular structure, but NEVER can they fake something that works the same as real honey for our health and well-being.  Because the bees have added a MYSTERIOUS GOODNESS of their own that can never be comprehended by the most ingenious mind or counterfeited by the most advanced technology ~ Ruth Tan 

If you have been reading this blog for awhile you know that I love honey and we had our own adventures in beekeeping last season - if you missed the post you can see it here.  Did you know that not all honey that is available to you is the same?  There is raw honey and processed honey and they are as different from each other as night and day.  

Honey, raw honey that is, is full of phytonutrients, vitamins and enzymes that have health benefits.  It is a life-giving food source that also happens to contain pollen and even propolysis which has anti-microbial properties.  There is an abundance of friendly bacteria which add to the health benefits and it can even help with wound healing.    

On the other hand, processed honey has been heated, watered down and forced through filters at high pressure to remove all the pollen.  The heating kills the nutrients, vitamins and enzymes too.  The difference between processed honey and raw honey can be compared nutritionally to the difference between eating extra soft, squishy white bread versus a dense loaf of bread made with whole wheat.  The processed honey is devoid of nutrients and the raw honey is full of nutrients. 

Unfortunately, much of the honey that is readily available at your local grocer is of the processed kind.  So avoid it and seek out a friendly beekeeper in your area to get raw honey or have a hive or two yourself!

There are some ways to tell if the honey you have in the cupboard right now is processed.  Here are some tips from The Permaculture Research Institute: 

• The Thumb Test:  Put a drop of honey on your thumb 
• Does it spread around?  If yes, processed
• Does it stay intact?  If yes, raw
• The Water Test:  Fill a glass with water and add a tablespoon of your honey
• Does it dissolve?  If yes, processed
• Does it settle in the bottom of the glass?  If yes, raw
• The Shelf Life Test: 
• Did it crystallize?  If yes, processed
• Did it stay more like syrup?  If yes, raw
• Light a Fire:  Dip the tip of a match in the honey and then try to light it
• If it won't light - processed
• If it lights and burns - raw 

Everyone should make your own dietary choices and I hope you will do some research of your own.  It is my opinion that raw honey in its natural state is worthy of the effort and cost to provide it to your family.  As a reminder, no honey - not raw or processed should ever be given to any child under the age of one year.  The risk of illness is too great.  

As promised, I wanted to share a recipe for cough syrup made with honey and herbs that is an adaptation of the recipe that came in my Homegrown Collective January Greenbox.  

Remember that coughing does serve a purpose to clear mucus but when the cough is disruptive of sleep, for example, assistance to suppress coughing may be useful.  Always seek medical attention for coughs accompanied by shortness of breath or high fever.  Also seek medical attention for coughs that persist.  I am not a physician and do not intend this recipe  to replace medical treatments.  Please use the same discretion you would use in any other over-the-counter cough products.   

Homemade Cough Syrup 

Ingredients:

1 quart of water 

1/4 cup dried echinacea root

1/4 cup dried St. John's wort

2 Tablespoons freshly grated ginger

1 crushed cinnamon stick

juice from one lemon

1 cup of raw honey 

Instructions: 

• Combine the water, echinacea, St. John's wort, ginger and cinnamon stick in a saucepan.  Simmer over low heat until liquid is reduced by half.  
• Strain the liquid through a strainer to remove the herbs.  Compost the herbs.  
• Return the liquid to the saucepan and add the lemon juice and honey.  Warm the liquid over very low heat until the mixture blends together.  Do not heat too much or you will destroy the benefit of the honey.  
• Transfer to jar, label and refrigerate.   

Why are each of these ingredients included in this recipe?  

• Honey: according to the Mayo Clinic, honey may be as effective as over-the-counter cough suppressants
• Lemon:  helps with congestion
• Cinnamon:  has anti-bacterial properties
• Ginger: is an anti-inflammatory and can help body aches; also boosts the immune system
• St. John's Wort: has anti-viral properties  
• Echinacea: boosts the immune system

What are some ways you use the "MYSTERIOUS GOODNESS" of real, raw honey?  I would love to hear your comments.  Thank you so much for visiting today.  

Tomorrow is our visit to the Garden Gate and I share my favorite herbal teas to make as well as how to make your own tea bags.  I hope to see you then.  

Peace be with you, 

Star Schipp 

This post may contain affiliate links which means if you make a purchase using one of those links, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you.  It is a great way to support your favorite hobby farm blogger.  Thank you!